Clip bagging machine



Jan. 16 1934.

File July 14. 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet l I LIll/ I CW 2 u n 3/... 1 x 1M2 W E y 7 Jan. 16, 1934. J THOMPSON 1,944,041

CLIP BAGGING MACHINE Filed July 14, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 J. D. THOMPSON CLIP BAGGING MACHINE Filed July 14. 1930 Jan. 16, 1934.

Patented Jan. 16, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

The invention relates in general to mechanism for filling bags or containers with articles such as wire fence clips, and has reference particularly to a mechanism for automatically filling a bag or similar container with articles and for successively presenting another bag in position for filling when the preceding bag has received the correct number of articles.

An object of the present invention is to provide novel mechanism for filling a plurality of bags or containers successively with articles as the same are discharged from a forming machine, which will be simple in construction, reliable and positive in operation and capable of efiiciently meeting service conditions and other commercial requirements.

With these and various other objects in view, the invention may consist of certain novel features of construction and operation, as will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the specification, drawings and claims appended hereto.

In the drawings, Which illustrate an embodiment of the device and wherein like reference characters are used to designate like parts Figure 1 is an elevational View of the clip bagging mechanism constructed in accordance with the present invention and showing .the same completely assembled;

Figure 2 is another elevational view, the same being taken along line 2-2 of Figure 3; and

Figure 3 is a plan view of the mechanism shown in Figure 1.

The machine as shown in the drawings is mounted upon a base 10 by means of a plurality of supporting legs 11, bolted to the base by means of bolts 12. A plurality of the supporting legs 11 are employed, suitably spaced upon the base, the legs being formed integrally with a supporting ring 13 having a surface 14 and an upstanding edge 15. Also associated with the supporting ring 13 and with the base 10 is an upstanding member 16, the same having bolted thereto by bolts 17 a transverse supporting member 18. The supporting member is in turn secured by bolts 19 to a diagonal brace 29, which serves to rigidly maintain the member in position. The supporting member is provided with an upper surface formed to provide a plurality of bearings 21, 22 and 23 and is also provided with a depending apron 24, which serves to provide a bearing 25.

Adapted to be rotatably mounted upon the supporting ring 13 is a circular hub member 26, provided on its inner surface with an internal gear 27, the gear may be formed integrally with the hub member or, as shown in the drawings, comprising a separate member which can be readily fitted to the hub. Also secured to hub 26 are a plurality of supporting arms 28, securely fastened to the hub by screws 29 and being provided with a plurality of concave seats 30, one seat being located at the extremity of the arm and the other seat being spaced inwardly therefrom. The hub is pref erably formed in the two sections to facilitate machining of the same, the sections being provided with lugs 31 and bolted together by bolts 32. A crate, designated in its entirety by 33, Figure 1, is adapted to be detachably supported upon the arms 28, and consists of a pair of outer wire members 34, Figure 3, and a pair of inner wire members 35, each wire being suitably spaced to form a rectangular cage, as shown in Figure 2. The wires 34 and 35 are joined by vertically extending wires 36, and are connected together to form the cages by horizontal wires 37. This divides the circular crate into a number of supporting portions the upper wires 37 having formed thereon a number of upstanding pins 38 so that the bags or containers 39 can be detachably secured within each supporting section. The crate is preferably formed into a plurality of sections, each section being detachably supported upon the arms 28 by reason of the concave seats 30. This construction allows the sections of the crate to be removed as a unit independent of the remaining sections, so that one can be in the process of having the bags filled with articles, while the preceding section is being removed from the machine to remove the filled bags and replace the same with empty ones.

The device of the present invention is preferably adapted to be associated with wire clip forming machines of the type as disclosed in the application of Harry E. Frenette, Serial No. 434,233, filed March 8, 1930. The wire clips are discharged from the machine into a chute 40, Figure 1, which is located directly over the circular crate member 33. It is thus seen that as the articles are discharged from the chute 40, they drop into that bag or container located directly below the same. As soon as a bag is filled with the articles it must be moved and another bag located thereunder. For this operation it is only necessary to cause rotation of the hub member 26 the desired distance so that one supporting section on the crate 33 is moved out from under the chute 40 and the next supporting section is located thereunder. To perform this operation the present invention contemplates novel mechanism which will be described.

A counter shaft 41 is journaled within the bearings 21, 22 and 23, provided on the upper portion of the transverse support 18. A sprocket wheel 42 is keyed to the shaft 41 and is adapted to be engaged by an endless chain 43, which chain also engages the sprocket 44 keyed to a constantly revolving shaft 45. The revolving shaft 45 constitutes part of the machine which forms the articles being discharged into the containers and forms no part of the present invention. Also keyed to the counter shaft 41 is a worm gear 46 which meshes with a gear wheel 4'7 journaled upon the transverse supporting member 18. A shaft 48 mounted within bearings 50 serves to suitably journal the gear 47 on the support. Suitably bolted to one side of the gear 4'? is a cam 51 having the contour as shown in Figure 2. A bell crank 52 is operatively associated with the cam 51 by reason of the contacting arm 53, the bell crank being journaled upon the depending apron 24 by means of a shaft 54, fitted within bearing 25. The vertical arm 55 of the bell crank 52 has engagement by reason of a forked end 56, with the clutch 57 keyed to but slidably mounted on the counter shaft 41. Loosely mounted upon the counter shaft 41 adjacent the clutch 5'? is a second sprocket wheel 58, adapted to have meshing engagement with an endless chain 60. The sprocket wheel 58 is provided with an outstanding lug 61, while the clutch 58 has a cooperating lug 62. As the sprocket wheel 58 is loosely mounted upon the counter shaft and since the clutch 57 is keyed thereto and positively revolves therewith, it is only necessary to cause rotation of the sprocket 58 to slide the clutch 5'7 upon the counter shaft 41 in a direction towards the right, as viewed in Figure 2. This movement causes engagement of the outstanding lugs 61 and 62 to thus rotate the sprocket 58 in accordance with the rotation of the counter shaft 41.

The slidable movement of the clutch 57 upon the counter shaft 41 is controlled by reason of the spring 63. The spring engages an arm 64 at its outer end and has abutting engagement with a web 65, formed integrally with the transverse support 18. Since the arm 64 is pivotally connected to arm 55 as at 66, it is seen that the bell crank 52 is resiliently maintained in a direction so that the clutch 57 is held in its left hand position on the shaft 41. In this position the lugs 61 and 62 will not engage. In accordance with the rotations of the gear wheel 47 however, the clutch 57 has sliding movement in a right hand direction upon shaft 41, since the cam 51 engages the arm 58 once in every revolution. The formation of cam 51 is such that its engagement with arm 53 is for a duration of time sufficient to cause limited rotation of the sprocket wheel 58.

The endless chain 60 has meshing engagement with a sprocket wheel 67 keyed to a horizontal shaft 68. The shaft 68 is journaled upon a bearing '70 supported from base 10 and by a bearing 71' formed integrally with a curved support 72. The support '72 at its lower end is integrally formed with a vertical bearing 73, which in turn is integral with one of the supporting lugs 11. To one end of shaft 68 is keyed a bevel gear 74, which gear is adapted to have meshing engagement with a bevel gear 75, keyed to vertical shaft 76, the shaft 76 being journaled within bearings 73 and also having keyed thereto a pinion '77. From the above construction it is seen that by rotation of the sprocket wheel 66, the pinion 77 will be correspondingly rotated and since the latter pinion has meshing engagement with the internal gear 27, associated with the hub 26, the hub and the crate member 33 supported therefrom will be correspondingly rotated.

In operation the mechanism is adapted to be driven from shaft 45, which shaft constitutes part of a separate and independent forming machine. The sprocket 44 and sprocket 42 are preferably of a one to one ratio, so that the counter shaft 41 has a number of revolutions equal to that of the driving shaft 45. The gear 47 through the worm gear 46 is driven from counter shaft 41 and preferably is geared so as to considerably reduce the number of revolutions imparted to the gear. The ratio between the counter shaft 41 and shaft 48 may be as low as thirty-five or forty to one, depending on the number of articles it is desired to have discharged into the individual bags. Upon each revolution of gear 47, the cam 51 will engage the arm 53 to cause sliding movement of clutch 57 upon the counter shaft and consequent engaging of the lugs 61 and 62 with each other to cause rotation of sprocket wheel 58 for a limited period of time. This rotation of sprocket 58 is transmitted through chain 69 and wheel 66 to the horizontal shaft 68, which in turn causes rotation of the hub 26. It is, of course, understood that rotation of the hub 26 must be sufiicient to cause movement of the crate 38 so that one bag or container will be removed from under the chute 40 and the next bag located in position thereunder. The extent of this movement can be easily determined and cam 51 can be given a formation such as will efficiently accomplish the result.

The shaft 45 is a constantly rotating shaft and actuates cams to cause the formation of an article upon each revolution. Since the gear ratio between gear 4'? and shaft 45 is preferably set at either thirty-five or forty to one it will be seen that thirty-five or forty of the articles formed will be discharged into the chute 4D and bag located underneath before the bell crank 52 is actuated to slide the clutch to cause rotation of the sprocket 58 and thus the crate 33. By a variation of the ratio between the shaft and gear 47 any number of the articles can be discharged into the bags before the crate will be actuated to locate an empty bag in position.

I claim:

1. In a clip bagging machine, in combination, a supporting ring, a circular hub provided with an internal gear and mounted for rotation on said ring, a pl rality of arms projecting from said hub for supporting arcuate sections of a crate member, each section providing compartments for receiving and positioning a plurality of containers, and means for intermittently rotating said circular hub to successively locate said containers under a discharge hopper, said means including a constantly rotating shaft, a clutch on the shaft, and rotating means on the shaft positioned for actuation by the clutch and operatively connecting with the internal gear.

2. In a clip bagging machine, in combination, a supporting ring, a circular hub provided with an internal gear and mounted for rotation on said ring, a plurality of arms projecting from said hub for supporting arcuate sections of a crate member, each section being detachable and providing compartments for receiving a plurality of containers, and means for intermittently rotating said circular hub to successively locate said containers under a discharge hopper, said means including a constantly rotating shaft, a clutch on the shaft, and a sprocket Wheel rotatable on the shaft and positioned for actuation by the clutch and operatively connecting with the in- 5 ternal gear.

JAMES D. THOMPSON. 

